The Third round was the knockout individual power fight, taking place at the Aurora Bijlmer Arena. This was also the only round in this competition that the arena really made the most of its capacity which was twenty thousand spectators.
The stands of the arena was divided into separate areas. The best location was the area reserved for VIP guests, which had a total of five hundred seats. Around guest area was the area for teachers, including teachers from the military course and teachers from five academies, totaling three hundred seats. Next was the area for first-year students, which were ten classes from A to K that just finished the military training, this had a total of two hundred seats. The remaining nineteen thousand seats belonged to people of the capital who owned the common tickets. By the way, those common tickets were always sold out a month before the competition took place. Because not only civilians were excited about this competition, but some low-level, middle-level officials or the owners of small and medium businesses also loved to watch this. They always tried the best to buy the tickets, not only for themselves but also for the whole family to come and see together.
As mentioned before, to make it convenient for pairing, this third round only took the top eight Class Leaders from the previous two rounds. Class E leader Samuel Meyer and Class G leader Martin Blanc were the two with the lowest scores and were disqualified, currently sitting in the stand area of their class to watch the match.
The matches were decided as below:
First pair: Fourth-ranked Hawley Quincey and Fifth-ranked Kristena Ellis.
Second pair: Third-ranked Drake Atticus and Sixth-ranked Patrick Kang.
Third pair: Second-ranked Cheryl Maximus and Seventh-ranked Stella Wagner.
Last pair: First-ranked Angus Farley and Eighth-ranked James Petrov.
For the first pair, Hawley belonged to the Flame race of Fire style, confronting Kristena belonged to the Waterfall race of Water style.
First of all, from these two competitors, lets have a small discussion about the races of the Fire and Water styles.
For the Fire style, the main races which were recorded in books included: Lava, Blaze, Flame, Torch, Lantern, Fume, and Heat.
It should be taken seriously that the names of the Dragonmen races were just a way to visualize the energy attribute that they possessed, and it didn't mean that their energy would be exactly the same as the name ➡ For example, "Torch" did not mean their fire was as small as a torch. It was because of these names that the later generation had misunderstandings and wrong comparisons of strengths and weaknesses among races. The case of Cheryl was an example.
Of course, racial superiority was real, for example, some races were naturally born with strong attacking and defensive power, or extremely abundant internal power which somehow created a certain suppression to the other races. But, as doctor Edmund of the Hills village once said, there were no perfect race, nor useless race. Each race had its own advantages and disadvantages, which if were utilized well would lead to a great strength. Also do not forget that in this world there was a concept called "genius"! Once a genius was born, even he or she was from a small race, they could still cause a deadly menace to the large races.
Among the Fire races, Lava possessed a dense, hot yellow or orange-colored flame, looked like molten lava flows, with the great devastation as their biggest advantage. Their disadvantage was the attacking and spreading speed was a bit slow compared to other Fire races, again, just similar to the moving of the lava flow compared to normal fire!
Next was the race group that possessed the orange-red flame that were commonly seen in everyday life, including Blaze, Flame, Torch, and Lantern. In particular, Blaze had a huge advantage in the spreading speed and range of the fire, their fire could burn an entire forest in just a few minutes. However, because of this large-scale/ranged attacking feature, Blaze did not have the skill to control flames as subtly as the race next to them which was Flame.
Flame, compared to Blaze, their flame was a bit smaller, but they possessed a masterful flame controlling skill. In most cases, if there was nothing unexpected, all the attacks of Flame would always direct to the target exactly.
Next, Torch had a slightly inferior flame than Flame, but the name Torch not only referred to the flame, but also included the metal part containing the flame. Metal represented for the toughness, durability, and so symbolizing for the very good defensive capability of Torch. That's why it was said that, if only in terms of resistance and defense of Fire style, Torch was second only to Lava!
Now, Lantern, possessed little internal power, leading to a small and weak flame, but in return, they had the advantage of formation skills. Of course, Lantern was not the only race capable of using formation, but considering the number of formations and the power of every formation, Lantern was undoubtedly the top race in all three styles: Fire, Water, and Lightning! In addition, it was necessary to mention the amount of internal power consumed when performing formation: While the other races consumed a lot of internal power, Lantern hardly need to use internal power when they activated a formation. As for them, formation was not a skill, it was almost their natural born ability.
Finally, Fume and Heat – Like the name suggested, one possessed smoke power, the other one possessed heat energy. Smoke and heat were two small branches of Fire style. Depending on the fighting situation that the two races' capacity would have certain uses.
As for the Water style, the main races which were recorded in books included: Ocean, Tide, Waterfall, Stream, Rain, Dew, Glacier, and Snow.
Ocean possessed the most tenacious vitality and the most abundant internal power of all the Dragon races. Their strength laid not in their skills but in the internal power source which was like a deep ocean without the bottom, making them a really tough opponent to fight. With the largest amount of internal power among all races, Ocean could perform most of skills of Water style, from attacking to defensive, from requiring little amount to large mount of water. Unfortunately, this race was currently in danger of extinction. It was said that in the past, there used to be a large number of Ocean sacrificing their lives in the war, their population then only remained less than one hundred people. Later on, after the reunification of Pacific, they refused the title and rewards bestowed by the Emperor, gradually retreated from society. Over the past thirty years, there had been no new student from the Ocean race enrolled.
Next, Tide was a famous race with the great ability to control the water flow, this ability was similar to the fire control ability of the Flame race of Fire style. In addition, Tide also had an abundant internal power source, only inferior to Ocean, so their attack could be both rushing like a tsunami, and as gentle as a flowing stream. In other words, Tide had the attributes which were the same as the combination of Blaze and Flame of Fire style, with the best attributes selected. It was no exaggeration to say that Tide was the favorite child of the sky and the sea.
Now, Waterfall – just like the name, this race that possessed fast, strong, unexpected attacks, just like a waterfall. Meanwhile, the race next to them – Stream, possessed the gentle and pleasant energy type, with delicate watery skills. In addition, Stream also had a special feature that when they were performing their skills, there would be a kind of mesmerizing murmuring sound like stream sound coming along, this was a great supporting attribute as it helped to fascinate and get their opponent confused.
Rain possessed attacking skills with water from the air, and Dew had a pure downy energy which was suitable for purification and treatment.
Finally, Glacier and Snow, the two races belonged to the "Ice" branch of the Water style. One possessed power from the ice, the other possessed power from snow. Based on the names, it was believed that Glacier's offensive and defensive power was somewhat stronger than Snow.
In fact, not many people could interpret the power, as well as advantages and disadvantages of all races in detail. In the minds of most people, Lava and Blaze were the two dominant races of the Fire style, followed by Flame and Torch in the middle-level ranks, and Lantern, Fume and Heat belonged to the weak group. As for the Water style, Ocean, Tide and Glacier races were considered to be the "strong", Waterfall and Rain were ranked as average, while Stream, Dew, and Snow were classified as weak races.
Now back to the situation in the arena ground.
Both Hawley and Kristena were considered to be from "average" groups of the Fire and Water style, so this confrontation was considered to be an "equal" match.
Entering the match, both Hawley and Kristena performed beautiful attacks and defenses. For example, when Hawley performed "Fireball", Kristena fought back with "Water Sphere", Hawley used "Multi Fire Balls", Kristena responded with "Multi Water Spheres", Hawley used the intermediate skill "Great Fire Ball", then Kristena countered also with an intermediate skill which was "Water Wall"... However, the more the time went by, the more Hawley showed that he was superior to Kristena.
As mentioned earlier, the Flame race was very subtle at controlling fire, so they possessed the "Fire Whip" skill that was very useful in single attack.
All the skills involving fire whip required a good controlling ability to turn fire into the shape of a whip and move as our will, commonly used by the Lava and Flame races. The thing was, the shape of the fire whip performed by Lava would be slightly different from that of Flame: It had a slower speed but a clearer shape and a super higher temperature, causing more serious injury. And the fire whip created by Flame – it was lower in temperature but had extremely fast speed, very suitable for attacking opponents from Water and Lightning style whose average speed was better than Fire style.
On the Water style side, there was also a similar technique which was capable of countering "Fire Whip" of the Fire style, it was "Water Whip". However, Waterfall with the rushing attacking power of the waterfall – and, of course, consuming a lot of internal power – was incapable of performing such a subtly controlling skill as "Water Whip". There were only three races could perform "Water Whip," they were Ocean, Tide, and Stream. Being unable to use "Water Whip," Kristena still had another option which was "Water Wall" to counter fire whip. But because of the power-consuming feature of the Waterfall race, she couldn't maintain it for long.
Therefore, after thirty minutes, the match ended when Hawley simultaneously performed two skills "Fire Whip" and "Fire Arrows" to attack Kristena. At that time, Kristena's internal power was exhausted, so she had no other way but to admit defeat.
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